KOTA KINABALU: Consumers Affair and Protection Society of Sabah (CAPS) president James Baga has called on the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to ensure all telecommunication service providers (Telco) review their access charges.
While applauding MCMC chairman, Datuk Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi’s call on telecommunication service providers to review their package plans to be more affordable to consumers, James hoped MCMC will also look to it that these providers review their service fees and come down hard on those who fail to comply.
Pointing this out in a statement yesterday, James said the call was made to take effect from January 1, this year, but there is no evident to show that Telco service providers had complied with it.
“Telco providers should by now charge cheaper call rates. The present rates are too high and not helping the consumers to lessen their burden especially the lower income group,” he said.
“Our random survey shows that the call charges imposed on Maxis is 24 sen per minute but consumers were charged additional 12 sen when calling to other network which is 36 sen per minute,” he added. He said telecommunication providers should not charge consumers different rates for different telco users and impose a standard rate for all networks nationwide instead.
James claimed that CAPS also received numerous complaints from consumers being charged for every unsuccessful call connected to the automatic voice answering system.
“Telco providers should not be charging customers for their voice answering system. It’s akin to daylight robbery,” said James.